MAP

POSTER SESSION

Participants are invited to submit abstracts for a poster session prior to the social dinner. No submissions for oral presentations will be accepted.

All abstracts must be accompanied by a poster

Poster dimensions: no larger than A0(84.1×118.9 cm)

If the first author is a student, please sign your poster as “Student poster”. The best poster by a student will receive the prestigious COLOSS award.

ACCOMODATION

We suggest the following hotels that are close to Syntagma Square and close to the historical centre of Athens. An offer exists, regarding the prices that it is possible to change depending on the availability of rooms.

Identifying stressors and effectors of the honeybee immune response, through mass spectrometry, may represent a promising solution for bee health monitoring

Submitted by:

BULET Philippe

Institution:

BioPark Archamps

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In recent years, populations of western honeybees have declined worldwide. This decline is attributed to many stressors. Up to today, research and methodologies deployed against new challenges (such as use of pesticides, virus prevalence and other pathogens, climate and flora changes) have focused on evaluating and attempting to separately prevent and fight each factor. In addition, most of studies have focused on identifying and quantifying the presence of stress agents, instead of focusing on their impact on the colonies. The aim of our studies is to address these limitations by establishing robust, effective and sensitive technologies for profiling & deciphering bee immunoproteomes with regards to the host-pathogen interactions. The objective is to deliver practical applications for monitoring and enhance bee immunity for an integrated and adapted health management. The analyses of bee hemolymph, by hyphenated MALDI-MS and LC-ESI-MS/MS approaches for proteomic characterization of the immunoproteomes, resulted in visually different molecular profiles in function of the bees’ infectious conditions (virus, Varroa mite, microsporidia Nosema). These differences were confirmed by statistical comparison of mass spectrometry profiles and discriminant analysis. We have demonstrated for example that virus-infected bees samples, with or without Varroa co-infection, ended up in a cluster of their own inside the overall Varroa cluster. This strongly supports the robustness of our monitoring approach in the case of co-infections, its potential as a plausible strategy to monitor honeybees’ health, and for a better understanding of the molecular immune response of this social insect, in the context of experimental/natural infections.

Honeybee population decline is being attributed to stressors such as parasites (viruses, Varroa mite), pesticides, and environmental changes. Most researches focused on identifying the stressors’ presence instead of their impact on honeybee colonies. BeeTyping™ aims at profiling the infected bees’ immunoproteome, in order to deliver practical applications for bee health management. Hemolymph samples were collected from individuals from monitored colonies with a diagnosed infection, and from individuals artificially infected with a pathogen. Virus presence was confirmed by quantitative PCR. Protein content was analyzed and compared by MALDI-MS, directly or after reduction-alkylation of the hemolymph. Top-down analysis by LC-MS/MS was conducted to confirm protein identities. Hemolymph analyses tracked key peptides and proteins of the bee immunoproteome (apidaecin, hymenoptaecin…), and resulted in different molecular fingerprints in function of the bees’ infectious conditions. These differences were confirmed by statistical comparison of MS profiles by principal component analysis. Virus-infected bee, with or without Varroa destructor co-infection, ended up in a cluster of their own inside the overall Varroa cluster. These first results strongly support the robustness of our monitoring approach in the case of co-infections, its potential as a plausible strategy to monitor honeybees’ health, and a mean for a better understanding of the molecular immune response of this social insect, in both experimental and natural infections. Other infection models are currently being investigated, notably for microsporidia (Nosema) and entomobacteria.

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Heat and ozone in beekeeping

Submitted by:

Rosa Maria Licón

Institution:

proApia

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Nikolaos Emmanouil

Institution:

Agricultural University of Athens

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Flemming Vejsnæs

Institution:

Danish Beekeepers Association

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Virus Taskforce

Submitted by:

Anne DALMON

Institution:

INRA

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Laetitia Papoutsis

Institution:

Agricultural University of Athens

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Geoff Williams

Institution:

Auburn University

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Aneta Ptaszyńska

Institution:

Maria Curie-Sklodowska University

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Per Kryger

Institution:

Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology

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Bjørn Dahle

Institution:

Norwegian Beekeepers Association

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Vincent Dietemann

Institution:

Agroscope

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Michail Kokkinis

Institution:

Veterinary Centre of Thessaloniki

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Submitted by:

RAQUEL MARTIN

Institution:

Centro de Investigación Apícola y Agroambiental de Marchamalo (IRIAF)

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Marco Pietropaoli

Institution:

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana

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Caging queens and oxalic acid against Varroa mite in Chile

Submitted by:

Patricia Aldea

Institution:

Universidad Mayor

Abstract Authors:

Aldea P., Duran N., Henríquez P., and Blaauboer F.

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Submitted by:

Aranzazu Meana

Institution:

Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

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Maritta Martikkala

Institution:

Finnish Beekeepers Association

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Raffaele Dall'Olio

Institution:

BeeSources

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New Frontiers in Varroa Control – Are HBAs an Effective Treatment Against Varroosis?

In recent years, a tendency of increased use of organic products for varroa control is present. There are some preparations known and registered for organic repression on the base of plant extracts. Recently, products based on hop beta-acids (HBA) are offered as an alternative, since they are perceived as harmless, naturally occurring in the environment and consequently their maximum residue limits (MRLs) are set as not relevant. An important industry in Slovenian agriculture is also hop growing, which annually produces 2,500 t of hops and hop products, which ranks Slovenia in the 5th place in the world with 3% of world production. Consequently hop industry is always looking for alternative uses for hops outside the brewing industry. In addition to the role of the hops in beer as a raw material, which gives beer flavour and aroma, it is very important also the role of a preservative, because beer is one of the rare drinks with no addition of preservatives. In beer HBAs have a protective role with a proven antimicrobial effect. In our experiment we carried out practical testing of hops extracts in the form of toxicity tests on varroa infested bees at different concentrations and with different methods of application. We evaluated the effects of hop extracts on the cleaning behaviour of bees. Moreover, a pilot trial on colonies was carried out taking into account the environmental factors that may affect the condition of the colony. After conducting a pilot experiment, sensory evaluation of honey will be performed in order to determine the possible transition of hop components in honey, and possible impact to sensorial properties. The completion of this research will be a prototype product based on beta-acids on which stability tests in laboratory environment will be conducted. From existing gene banks of standard varieties and collections of new hop breeding lines we will search for suitable hop genotypes. We will determine the content of alpha- and beta-acids, and the quantity and composition of essential oils. Based on the results we will create a list of prospective genotypes suitable for cultivation for the purpose of extracting beta-acids. In commercially available hop extracts we will further determine their chemical composition of hop resins and essential oils, as a potential disruptive element.

An ongoing goal of the monitoring group is to expand the representation of countries participating in the group for a better overview of colony loss rates, and the group continues to be active in recruiting new contacts with potential to run their own national surveys. In 2017, 30 countries sent data from their monitoring survey to the international data co-ordinator for inclusion in the data analysis, a net increase of 1 country on last year. In fact data was received from Malta, Mexico and Serbia, as new countries to the monitoring group, and Belarus joined in once more, having taken part in 2015. Portugal has started monitoring but, owing to some local delays, their survey is in progress at the time of writing. We hope that it may be possible to include these data in a later analysis. Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina (a previous participant), Greece, Luxemburg and Armenia were also possibilities for monitoring, and remain so for next year. However as new countries join in, others are sometimes unable to continue. Some countries participating last time did not send data this year. Of those countries Turkey took part in 2016 after a break of a few years, but was unable to contribute in 2017. Lithuania had some difficulties with data return in 2016 and did not contribute at all this year. The Netherlands did not monitor this year, but has been a key contributor of data every year since the beginning of the monitoring group. Indeed Romee van der Zee has contributed enormously to the work of COLOSS. We greatly appreciate Romee’s past contributions as chair and data co-ordinator of the monitoring group until recent years, and also her ongoing work in writing some of our planned papers with data collected so far. She will also act as a consultant to the group. Concerning data quality, this remains an issue that hinders some of the analysis and limits the usefulness of some of the data collected. Special efforts were made to emphasise the importance of submitted data passing quality checks, through email communication, presentations, and also by including instructions to national co-ordinators as part of the codebook provided for data return. Despite this, some datasets did not comply with the coding rules, which delays analysis, and not all cases are useable owing to missing or inconsistent data. Disappointingly, for one country most of the data for some essential questions was missing. More support may be needed for new countries, but some more established contributors need to focus on these issues. Providing the codebook earlier and/or collaboration at the point of design of the local questionnaire and instructions to beekeepers may be necessary to reduce the problems encountered this year. A move towards more countries collecting data online may be helpful, for ease of access to the questionnaire and return of data by the beekeeper, as well as building in data consistency and quality checks. This will also allow new countries with widespread computer use to join in monitoring more easily with the support of those already doing online surveys. We hope to revisit the issues of the hot countries, in Africa and the Middle East, to give more support in several ways to our existing and former partners there and to recruit new ones. Connected to this is a new contact with Argentina and the participation this year of Mexico. Following the new initiative started in 2016 to submit an annual short paper on winter loss rates before more in-depth analysis, the second of this series of papers has just been submitted. This will be followed up with a press release at the time of publication, expected by the end of 2017, as a change to the usual timing of this. A further plan is to write a descriptive study of Varroa treatments in Europe and this is underway at the time of writing. Two other planned papers are still in production, with further possibilities for publication in mind also. A priority is a review of winter loss rates to examine spatio-temporal patterns.

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Submitted by:

Jevrosima Stevanovic

Institution:

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade

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Submitted by:

Ivana Tlak Gajger

Institution:

University of Zagreb Veterinary Faculty

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MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF NOSEMA CERANAE PRESENT IN POLAND

Submitted by:

Andrzej Bober

Institution:

National Veterinary Research Institute

Abstract Authors:

Andrzej Bober, Dagmara Zdańska, Marta Skubida, Krystyna Pohorecka

Abstract:

The aim of the study was to assess the phylogenetic diversity of Nosema ceranae strains and potential routes of introduction of the parasite to national apiaries. Polish isolates and isolates occurring in other countries were compared to obtain this aim. The research material comprised of samples of worker bees collected from individual colonies, originating from apiaries located in 16 provinces. To evaluate the phylogenetic relationships 3 samples with N. ceranae from different apiaries in each province were taken. In order to obtain DNA fragments (of the genes encoding polar tube proteins - PTP1, PTP2, PTP3) phylogenetic analysis was performed after a PCR using 4 primer pairs for each sample (for PTP1 gene 2 primer pairs were used). Analyses set up for the phylogenetic tree for PTP2 gene sequence and PTP3 gene sequence revealed the presence of one main group with the tendency to form subgroups for both the PTP2 gene and the PTP3 gene. Based on a comparison of genetic distances between the isolates we demonstrated very high similarity to the reference sequences for both fragments of analyzed genes.

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Submitted by:

Marina Kosanovic

Institution:

veterinary faculty

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„Varroawarndienst“ - a beekeepers’ Citizen Science project to support the control of Varroa mites

Submitted by:

Linde Morawetz

Institution:

Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety

Abstract Authors:

Linde Morawetz, Josef Mayr, Rudolf Moosbeckhofer, Michael Rubinigg

Abstract:

The negative effects of the infestation with Varroa destructor is one of the major problems of modern beekeeping. Despite intensified training and regular information campaigns, Austrian beekeepers keep struggling with severe winter losses due to the Varroa mite. The “Varroawarndienst” (Varroa warning service) is a new approach, which aims to raise awareness of the Varroa problem and gives active advise to beekeepers to take action in situations of high Varroa infestation rates. In this Citizen Science project beekeepers are invited to share their data on Varroa infestation levels in their own colonies with all other beekeepers in Austria. They systematically sample natural mite fall (five times a year, each time for one week) and submit the collected data via a web-browser to a database where the data is analysed. In addition, the exact location of the apiary, from which the data was collected, is submitted. In return, they are provided with useful tools which evaluate the current state and development of Varroa infestation level of the beekeeper’s own colonies. Each beekeeper visiting the platform gets an overview of the current situation of Varroa infestation in Austria. A classic traffic light design helps to catch the overall situation at one glance. Furthermore, visitors are provided with a detailed prediction of the expected development of the Varroa infestation level and of the situation in various regions of Austria. Information of high infestation levels in their regions will shift their attention towards early signs of Varroosis or reinfestation in their own colonies. A weather forecast is also implemented into the platform, which helps to find the ideal date or period for each particular type of Varroa treatment. Therefore, beekeepers can react in time and efficiently to the current situation and the probability that the bee colonies will survive the forthcoming winter is increased.

Estimating winter losses for managed honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies is critical for understanding hive productivity and health. This study reports estimates of overwinter colony losses in New Zealand, which has seen exponential growth in the number of managed colonies in recent years. Over 35% of all beekeepers and 50% of all commercial beekeepers in the country responded to the internet-based 2016 New Zealand Colony Loss Survey, providing detailed information on over 275,000 colonies (over 40% of all registered colonies) that entered winter 2016. Using three different methods, we estimate overall winter losses to be below 10%. However, nearly 29% of beekeepers lost more than 15% of their colonies over winter 2016, and nearly 25% of beekeepers lost more than 20% of their colonies over winter 2016, indicating considerable skewness. These results are subject to strong regional variation, with the highest losses reported in areas with significant mānuka resources; similarly, non-commercial beekeepers report substantially higher losses than commercial beekeepers. Beekeepers who lost colonies over the winter of 2016 most frequently attributed the cause to colony death, queen problems, or wasps. However, varroa and competition for apiary sites were also identified as important areas of concern.

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Submitted by:

Ulrike Marsky

Institution:

Véto-Pharma

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Submitted by:

ASLI ÖZKIRIM

Institution:

HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

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Submitted by:

Remi PADE

Institution:

Veto-pharma

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Submitted by:

Declan Schroeder

Institution:

University of Reading

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Submitted by:

ole kilpinen

Institution:

Danish Beekeepers Association

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Submitted by:

Joachim Rodrigues de Miranda

Institution:

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

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KEEP CALM - IT'S ONLY 365 DAYS UNTIL EURBEE8

Submitted by:

Dirk de Graaf

Institution:

Ghent University

Abstract Authors:

Dirk C. de Graaf

Abstract:

We are pleased to announce the 8th EurBee Congress of Apidology, to be held in Ghent, Belgium, September 18 – 20, 2018. This meeting follows the Eurbee congresses in Udine, Prague, Belfast, Ankara, Halle, Murcia, and Cluj Napoca. The EurBee congresses are held every two years and are a major international forum for discussion of the latest and most important results in bee research. The meetings bring together scientists from different fields and serve as a venue for exchanging ideas that emerge from basic and applied research. EurBee has become the premier event for researchers studying different aspects of wild and managed bees, and how they respond to environmental changes to address problems with species conservation, pollination services, beekeeping management and colony losses. The venue of Eurbee8 is the Campus Ledeganck of Ghent University, which is located near the historic centre of Ghent, a medieval city in the heart of Europe. More detailed information on deadlines for paper submission, registration and accommodation is available on the congress website: http://www.eurbee2018.org/